Pure emotion error - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Should We Make Friends Again?

Lin Yiqiao handed the technical documents requiring review and approval to Wang Hao and quickly left the office. He was completely oblivious to the trouble his words might have caused others.

Wang Hao didn’t dare breathe loudly until Lin Yiqiao closed the door from the outside. Only then did he burst into laughter, slapping the back of the sofa. “You offended him?”

Yan Lu didn’t speak.

Offended?

What he brought to Lin Yiqiao was probably far heavier than simply “offending”…

“Don’t look for him anymore.”

Seven years ago, the last phone call Yan Lu made to Lin Yiqiao’s home was answered by Lin Yimiao.

“He finally cooperated with the treatment, and his condition is a little more stable now. Don’t show up again.”

–
Lin Yiqiao returned to the R&D department, where a banana was on her desk.

Lin Yiqiao pointed to the banana and asked Wen Wei beside her, “Did you give this to me?”

Wen Wei shook her head and gestured with her chin towards Song Xin, the algorithm engineer in the next group.

There was a banana on everyone’s table, not just for Lin Yiqiao, but as part of a social etiquette she couldn’t understand.

Lin Yiqiao thought it was illogical for colleagues to try to build relationships by feeding each other. You can’t know everyone’s food preferences; if you accidentally fed someone with a nut allergy peanuts, or a diabetic chocolate bean, it probably wouldn’t work.

For example, Lin Yiqiao wouldn’t eat yellow foods today because it was Wednesday, and he avoided yellow foods on Wednesdays.

Lin Yiqiao stood up, holding the banana between two fingers, to return it to Song Xin, when Wen Wei tugged at his clothes and reached out, saying, “Give it to me.”

Lin Yiqiao asked her, “Do you want one?”

Wen Wei: “Yes.”

Lin Yiqiao gave her the banana and sat down again.

Wen Wei held the banana in his hand and asked Lin Yiqiao, “Do you know Yan Lu?”

Lin Yiqiao nodded, pointing out, “You know him too.” He had overheard Wen Wei talking about Yan Lu to others, so he assumed Wen Wei knew him.

Wen Wei glanced at Cai Dong and lowered his voice, saying, “I heard that Old Master Cai originally didn’t want you, but Yan Lu insisted on hiring you.”

Lin Yiqiao was shocked: “Old Master Cai didn’t want me? Why didn’t Old Master Cai want me?”

Wen Wei ignored this question and asked him, “You and Yan Lu are very close, aren’t you?”

Lin Yiqiao didn’t want to discuss his relationship with Yan Lu with others, so he told Wen Wei he didn’t know, then turned to look at the computer screen.

Lin Yiqiao believed Wen Wei’s information was completely inaccurate. Cai Dong clearly liked him; on his first day, Cai Dong openly expressed his affection for him.

As for why Yan Lu wanted to hire him, the reason was even clearer:

Because the company was short-staffed.

Wasn’t the job posting very clear?

This is why Lin Yiqiao dislikes chatting with others. Many things are perfectly clear, and a little reasoning is enough to understand them, yet people just can’t seem to grasp them.

Lin Yiqiao silently regretted wasting two minutes chatting and opened SolidWorks.

His phone vibrated, but Lin Yiqiao ignored it.

His phone vibrated again.

Normally, when Lin Yiqiao is focused on his work, he’s undisturbed by external stimuli. He’s like someone in a “tunnel,” oblivious to ambient noise and human activity.

But today, for some reason, he’s having trouble getting into the zone. Lin Yiqiao suspects it’s because of the yellow food he ate. That unfortunate banana is making him think of Yan Lu’s face while working.

This isn’t to say that Yan Lu looks like a banana.

Yan Lu is very handsome. Many girls liked him in high school, sending him gifts and love letters. Lin Yiqiao counted; up until his coming-out incident, Yan Lu had received gifts from forty-nine girls from different grades and classes.

Lin Yiqiao only accepted gifts once, or rather, never accepted them at all, because Yan Lu returned them for him that one time.

“Why can you accept gifts from girls, but I can’t?” Lin Yiqiao asked Yan Lu at the time.

Yan Lu explained a lot to Lin Yiqiao from the perspective of interpersonal relationships and social etiquette, but Lin Yiqiao didn’t understand and still felt it was very unfair.

So, when the fiftieth girl gave Yan Lu a gift and a love letter, Yan Lu came out as gay in the hallway outside the classroom.

Lin Yiqiao still remembers how noisy it was; the screams almost lifted the school building off the ground. He put on noise-canceling headphones, but it was still very noisy.

Lin Yiqiao had no concept of coming out. Liking girls or boys was like liking kittens or puppies—a very normal thing. He didn’t understand why it caused so much excitement.

Perhaps it’s because humans are all so bored.

Yan Lu is handsome now, Lin Yiqiao thought. He’d just looked closely and, objectively speaking, even more handsome than he remembered. His facial features were more defined, his nose more prominent, as if his structure had been optimized through iterations.

But he no longer wore glasses, and his facial expressions were difficult to decipher, making him feel unfamiliar to Lin Yiqiao.

He remembered Jing Xin’s words: once someone leaves your life, the connection between you and them disappears. This is an irreversible change; even if you meet again, things can never be the same.

His phone vibrated for the third time. Lin Yiqiao finally gave up trying to focus on work, unlocked the screen, and saw three new friend requests pop up on his social media app.

The applicants were all “Yan Lu from the CereNet group chat.”

There was a dedicated app for sending files and messages between company employees; WeChat was almost useless. Lin Yiqiao felt there was no need to add something with similar functionality again, so he didn’t accept the requests.

Yan Lu held his phone until 11:50, replied to all the new messages, and even played a game with Zhu Chizhou, who was slacking off at work. When he checked WeChat, all three friend requests had gone unanswered.

Zhu Chizhou messaged: [What are you having for lunch? Want to come over?]

Yan Lu: [I’m not sure, I’ll try my luck first.]

Zhu Chizhou: [Try your luck with what?]

Yan Lu put his phone in his pocket, stood up from the sofa, ran his hand through his hair, and said to Wang Hao, “I’m leaving now.”

Wang Hao looked at him, puzzled: “Weren’t you treating everyone to omelet rice? Aren’t you going to eat?”

Yan Lu turned away, waved, and walked towards the door: “You can eat it for me.”

CereNet occupied two floors of the building; the entire 12th floor was the R&D department, housing the laboratories and the researchers’ workspaces.

The tea break area was on the 13th floor. At this time, all his colleagues had gone up for lunch, leaving the R&D department almost empty, save for the soft hum of the still-running machines.

Lin Yiqiao disliked noisy, crowded environments, so he always waited until everyone else had finished eating and left before leisurely going up. He was still engrossed in his work.

“Lin Yiqiao.”

Hearing someone call his name, Lin Yiqiao looked up and saw Yan Lu above his computer screen.

Lin Yiqiao looked at him questioningly: “?”

“Come out with me,” Yan Lu said.

“What for?”

“To eat.”

“Why?”

Yan Lu gave that expression Lin Yiqiao couldn’t understand again, but it quickly changed to the handsome smile Lin Yiqiao used to know so well. “Today, the company only has omelet rice for lunch. Are you going to eat at the company?”

Lin Yiqiao paused, then heard Yan Lu add, “Today is Wednesday.”

According to the administration department’s ordering pattern, Wednesdays should be spent at that decent light-meal restaurant.

The sudden disruption of the routine caused Lin Yiqiao a slight jolt. He frowned and asked, “Why is it omelet rice today?”

Yan Lu said, “Wang Hao ordered it; he wanted some.”

Lin Yiqiao: “…”

“Let’s go,” Yan Lu tilted his head, “I know this area well; I know which restaurants can avoid the ‘yellow’ (a euphemism for prostitution).”

If he went out to eat without doing his research beforehand, Lin Yiqiao would indeed have a hard time choosing a restaurant, and ordering takeout at this hour would take a long time.

He slowly stood up, unsure of what to do. Perhaps he should listen to his mother and talk to Jing Xin beforehand to get a solution to this situation.

“Don’t dawdle,” Yan Lu seemed a little impatient, “If you take too long to eat, you’ll be late for work this afternoon.”

Lin Yiqiao hated being late, and he was indeed hungry, so he grabbed his backpack and followed Yan Lu.

When they were led to the underground parking garage, Lin Yiqiao asked, “Do we still need to drive?”

Yan Lu replied matter-of-factly, “Driving saves time.”

Lin Yiqiao felt something was off, but couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

From the elevator, Yan Lu kept his head down, texting, and didn’t speak to Lin Yiqiao until they reached the car. Only then did he open the passenger door for her.

Yan Lu driving felt unfamiliar to Lin Yiqiao, as she had never seen him drive before and had never imagined what it would be like for him to drive.

The midday sun was blinding. Yan Lu took out sunglasses and put them on, then reached out to lower the sun visor for Lin Yiqiao, asking, “Are you alright?”

“What?” Lin Yiqiao didn’t understand.

“The light,” Yan Lu glanced at him, “used to make your eyes uncomfortable when the light was too strong; you’d have to hide your head behind me in the sun.”

“Oh,” Lin Yiqiao said, “now I’ll close my eyes.”

Yan Lu smiled, then looked at him gently, “Why did you say we weren’t friends anymore today? You clearly remember what happened before.”

Lin Yiqiao was silent for a long time, then said, “Friends should keep their promises; that’s a basic rule. You broke the rule, so we’re not friends anymore.”

After saying this, Lin Yiqiao felt a little satisfied, as if he had wanted to say this to Yan Lu for a long time. To support his point, he added, “Jing Xin said I can remove you from my friend list; that’s my right.”

There was no music playing in the car; it was quiet and somewhat oppressive. Lin Yiqiao heard Yan Lu breathe heavily and rapidly twice, then he saw the bulging veins on Yan Lu’s hands gripping the steering wheel, as if he was holding it too tightly; his knuckles were pale. Even though there were no traffic lights or obstacles ahead, Yan Lu slammed on the brakes twice. Lin Yiqiao suspected Yan Lu wasn’t a good driver and immediately worried about his safety.

Fortunately, they arrived at their destination in a few minutes. Yan Lu parked the car in front of a quietly decorated restaurant.

“Lin Yiqiao,” Yan Lu sighed deeply, “is this the kind of logic your therapist used to teach you to deconstruct our relationship?”

The sunlight was no longer glaring, but Yan Lu didn’t remove his sunglasses. Lin Yiqiao looked at his reflection in the gleaming lenses, wondering why Yan Lu knew so quickly that Jing Xin was his therapist. He was certain he had never told Yan Lu about his neurotic diversity.

“How did you know?”

Yan Lu didn’t answer. The half of his face behind the sunglasses looked very serious, with a slight downturn at the corners of his mouth—an expression that could be interpreted as anger.

Lin Yiqiao didn’t understand why this question would anger Yan Lu, but he knew it was best not to ask questions that would upset someone, so he tactfully kept quiet.

He unbuckled his seatbelt and prepared to get out of the car.

Yan Lu let out a long sigh, then grasped Lin Yiqiao’s arm through his sleeve. Lin Yiqiao turned around, “Hmm?”

His sunglasses had been removed, revealing eyes filled with complex emotions Lin Yiqiao couldn’t decipher.

Lin Yiqiao heard Yan Lu say, “Lin Yiqiao, let’s be friends again, okay?”

——————–
I’ll be updating daily recently. Once I’m on the rankings, I might adjust the update frequency based on the rankings, but I’ll still guarantee five or more updates per week.